t, Mr. Curtis, they might have starved; the whole
burden of the support of the widow and the education of the children has
fallen upon him.

"Well, just lately the matter has assumed an acute form, for two
reasons. The first is that Charles's eldest son, Edmund, has come of
age. Mr. Curtis had him articled to a solicitor, and, as he is now fully
qualified, and a most advantageous proposal for a partnership has been
made, we have been putting pressure on Alfred to supply the necessary
capital in accordance with his father's wishes. This he had refused to
do, and it was with reference to this matter that we were calling on him
this morning. The second reason involves a curious and disgraceful
story. There is a certain Leonard Wolfe, who has been an intimate friend
of the deceased. He is, I may say, a man of bad character, and their
association has been of a kind creditable to neither. There is also a
certain woman named Hester Greene, who had certain claims upon the
deceased, which we need not go into at present. Now, Leonard Wolfe and
the deceased, Alfred Hartridge, entered into an agreement, the terms of
which were these: (1) Wolfe was to marry Hester Greene, and in
consideration of this service (2) Alfred Hartridge was to assign to
Wolfe the whole of his property, absolutely, the actual transfer to take
place on the death of Hartridge."

"And has this transaction been completed?" asked Thorndyke.

"Yes, it has, unfortunately. But we wished to see if anything could be
done for the widow and the children during Hartridge's lifetime. No
doubt, my client's daughter, Miss Curtis, called last night on a similar
mission--very indiscreetly, since the matter was in our hands; but, you
know, she is engaged to Edmund Hartridge--and I expect the interview was
a pretty stormy one."

Thorndyke remained silent for a while, pacing slowly along the gravel
path, with his eyes bent on the ground: not abstractedly, however, but
with a searching, attentive glance that roved amongst the shrubs and
bushes, as though he were looking for something.

"What sort of man," he asked presently, "is this Leonard Wolfe?
Obviously he is a low scoundrel, but what is he like in other respects?
Is he a fool, for instance?"

"Not at all, I should say," said Mr. Curtis. "He was formerly an
engineer, and, I believe, a very capable mechanician. Latterly he has
lived on some property that came to him, and has spent both his time and
his money in gamblin